Signs of hope amid the ruins

Well much of Ferguson, Missouri was reduced to smoking ruins as heavily armed police and National Guard stood by and did… not much.

Days of rioting after the grand jury no-billed Officer Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown have left Ferguson businesses burnt, looted, vandalized.

Brown is invariably described as “unarmed,” as if that translates into “helpless.” Six-feet four inches 300 pounds is never “unarmed” in that sense.

CNN laments he was “days away from starting college.” He was also minutes away from having walked into a minority-owned business, taking what he fancied and shoving a man half his size out of the way when he tried to protest.

Cries of “institutionalized racism” filled the air after Wilson’s acquittal. Never mind that the acquittal was handed down by a grand jury about a third African-American, based on forensics and the testimony of several African-American eyewitnesses.

One young African-American man was murdered during the riot and there is speculation he was, or was thought to have been one of the witnesses.

People in the streets are described by media as “demonstrators.” While there are people demonstrating peacefully against a decision they think was wrong, I wonder how they feel about being lumped in with rioters and looters as if there were no difference?

President Obama stepped in with words of reconciliation, but while the words are all right the music is all wrong. He made it pretty plain where his sympathy lies, and it’s evidently not entirely on the side of law and order.

He has plenty of company among privileged white folks getting a heady fix of what one observer called “riot porn.”

Darlena Cunha wrote in Time magazine, “Ferguson: In Defense of Rioting” that, “Rioting is part of the evolution of society” and described rioters as “change agents.”

Cunha and company ignore the fact that rioters made no, as in zero, distinction between minority-owned small businesses and the big corporate chain store outlets.

Tell Natalie Dubose, an African-American woman who poured her life into a small bakery business, that the rioters who destroyed it are “change agents” working for social justice.

So were the looters expressing their rage against a society that holds them down, or just hatred of those among their own community who built something of their own, like crabs in a bucket pulling down anyone who rises above the common herd?

But there are signs of hope.

While white social justice warriors are making excuses for the destruction from their lofty perch, people of all races committed to building rather than destroying are pouring withering scorn upon the rioters and their enablers. And it’s not racism, it’s not hatred, it’s not fear. It’s utter contempt for those who cannot build, only destroy what others have built.

And they’re putting their money where their mouths are and their backsides on the frontline where the government was too scared to go.

White and black business owners got together, organized and armed themselves to mount guard over their property.

Several young black men showed up at the gas station owned by their former (white) employer with guns, and told the looters to back off.

A GoFundMe project to raise money to rebuild DuBose’s bakery raised more than $260 thousand within five days. The goal was only $20 thousand!

DuBose is now directing the appeal to rebuild other small businesses destroyed in the riot.

And perhaps the most hopeful sign of all was, agree or disagree with the grand jury’s decision, a group of men and women, all of whom admitted fear for their personal safety, did not allow the mob to make that decision for them.